Julian Assange’s wife was met with an almighty surprise after sending out a plea to his supporters to help fund his private plane back to Australia.
An Australian lawmaker and ardent supporter of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Thursday (June 27) that the “thorn in the side” of Australia-U.S. relations had been removed thanks to a plea agreement that resulted in Assange’s recent release from prison. Assange’s wife, Stella Assange, thanked everyone who helped secure his release and shared that her husband now plans to “swim in the ocean every day” and “taste real food”.
Assange became a free man on Wednesday after pleading guilty to espionage charges brought by the US government in exchange for his freedom.
While it’s unclear whether the WikiLeaks co-founder will restart his work anytime soon, Assange doesn’t need to worry about the cost of the private plane that flew him out of the UK.
An anonymous and extremely wealthy Bitcoin investor donated roughly $753,000 worth to cover his trip home.
The WikiLeaks co-founder’s wife Stella had posted an “emergency appeal” on social media shortly after news broke of the plea agreement that would treat Assange’s five years in a London prison as time served.
Assange previously faced up to 170 years in an American prison for his involvement in publishing sensitive information provided by whistleblowers.
Getting around the world in a private plane isn’t cheap.
“URGENT: Emergency appeal for donations to cover massive USD 520,000 debt for jet,” Stella tweeted Tuesday.
“Julian’s travel to freedom comes at a massive cost: Julian will owe USD 520,000 which he is obligated to pay back to the Australian government for charter Flight VJ199. He was not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia. Any contribution big or small is much appreciated.”
She posted a link to a British crowdfunding site to accept donations in fiat currency as well as a link with crypto wallets for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Doge, and others.
The Australians had been lobbying President Joe Biden for Assange’s return to the country of his birth, though it’s still not clear how much Biden may have personally intervened to make sure the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) struck a plea deal.
Fiat currency donations to Assange currently sit at $734,000 from over 8,000 donors.
An anonymous and extremely wealthy Bitcoin investor donated roughly $753,000 worth to cover his trip home.
Assange’s flight was the most watched around the world on the website FlightTracker.
The remaining funds after the flight is paid for will go to Assange’s “recovery and well-being,” according to the crowdfunding campaign.
Mr Assange has not been heard from or seen since the airport arrival, saying he needed time to recover after “a 72-hour long flight to freedom” and years of detention and incarceration.
“He is just savouring freedom for the first time in 14 years,” Stella told reporters on Thursday.
“He needs time to rest and to recover and he is just rediscovering normal life and he needs space to do that.
“He plans to taste real food and he plans to enjoy his freedom.”
She said he has yet to be reunited with his two young sons, who were asleep when he arrived in Australia.
“We want to do it when we are in the same place,” she said.
“They were very excited when they found out their dad was coming home.”
She said she expected her husband would continue his mission.
“Julian is the most principled man I know and he will always defend human rights and speak out against injustice and he can choose how he does that, because he is a free man,” Stella said.
Ms Assange said his legal team would now fight to have the WikiLeaks founder pardoned, with his admission of guilt setting a dangerous precedent for journalism.
“I think that he will be pardoned if the press unite to push back against this precedent,” she said.
“Because it affects all of you. It affects your future ability to warn the public and to publish without fear.”
But his plans have been met with a mixed response. A former American intelligence chief warned against the idea, saying the US could see it as an act of “betrayal” by the Australian government.
Speaking to Sky News on Thursday morning, just hours after the WikiLeaks founder touched down at Canberra Airport, ex CIA chief of staff Larry Pfeiffer said he believed Mr Assange had served his time for leaking classified documents that the US said posed a threat to national security.
Asked about if the plea deal would affect relationships between Australia and the US, Mr Pfeiffer said he believed things would be “fine” as long as the Albanese government didn’t push for a pardon.
“I’d be very surprised if this administration were to consider any kind of a pardon at this point,” he said.
“This plea agreement is something that would have been shopped around all of the pertinent government institutions, intelligence community, State Department, Justice Department, Homeland Security, and they would have had to have come to some kind of an agreement to this plea agreement.
“So I think to now take the next step to pardon would probably be seen by some in that equation as being a betrayal of what they’d agreed to.”